Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home seems to be a phrase that I am not quite familiar with in my 30 years. I think ever since I started there was always talk of having to move out of one facility to another.

Lets start but talking about Exhibition Stadium. It was a great place to call home and was not only the site of where we played games but had our practices. We used to practice on the stadium turf for some time. It was great to be able to step right outside our back door to our field. Although we were the first there, we were very happy to share it with the Toronto Blue Jays. Even when we were doing our practice on a field set up for baseball we had a decent relationship with our roommates. After all it was a SHARED facility.

We would practice at the now site of Medieval Times and would only have to practice elsewhere during the Indy of CNE. hoping on a bus seemed like a big task at the time but we got used to it I suppose.

When the talk started about the construction of the SkyDome we knew that we would be playing our games in a multi-purpose facility and there would be some sacrifices but never what would come later. We knew that we would move in and move out each home Argo game. From 1989-1997 we had the luxury of having our day before the game practice at the SkyDome. The locker room would never really be our home while we paid rent at the SkyDome.

When we moved to a new practice facility, we were had some stability. University of Toronto Mississauga was a place we would call home from 1996-2014. Our relationship was best with our roommates when we were owned by the same owner. We shared resources and the facility from 1995-1999. There were some changes once we changed ownership but it all came tumbling down in 2000 when Rogers purchased the Toronto Blue Jays and the President was Paul Godfrey. Who was known as one of the main ringleaders to try and bring NFL to Toronto and demolish the historic Boatmen. In 2004, Rogers bought the SkyDome and made it the Rogers Centre. That's when the relationship changed dramatically. It was almost as though we were the kids on the playground that they wanted away. The faster they can make us unsuccessful, the better it would be for them. They brought the Bills Series which they believed to be the beginning of NFL to Toronto and the death of the Double Blue. Then the facility branding was Toronto Blue Jays from February to October and then Bills from November-December even when we hosted an East Final.

We are now in our last year of existence at the Rogers Centre and off to what was our original home back in the 70's and 80's. The last few years of schedule assignments for the Argos were signals as to how poorly we were viewed by the landlords.This past season we have had to play our first 5 games on the road and then we would play a large chunk of games in October. That's not ideal but its something we would make work for this last year. However with the Toronto Blue Jays success we are forced to likely look for a new venue to play our remaining season games. We could end up playing a total of only 5 home games at the Rogers Centre this season. Not exactly the way I imagined our farewell tour to end. This "Move Out" takes the cake on the biggest move out I've experienced in my 30 years with the club. So for the winningest team in Toronto, the first team to wear blue, the oldest franchise with the same name in North America and the team that has the most players staying in town to do community appearances, we'll just have to grin and bear it.

I won't let that take away from the joy I have of seeing the Jays successful, but I can still be saddened by the way we are treated. Aside from some fans at BMO field that don't want us returning to our original home, I am looking forward to sharing the facility with TFC and sharing in their success on the field. Hopefully, we will finally call somewhere "Home Sweet Home".

2015 Kickoff to the Farewell Tour

It's been way too long since my last post and its likely because I've been writing my book. The team has been on the road since June 26th and are finally back to play in Hamilton and then home to play the Green Riders. This home opener, my 31st is different than any other because it is the last one at the Rogers Centre. That made me reflect and think about all my years at the big round retractable stadium. I still remember in a 1987 Grey Cup promotional video seeing a special segment at the end that talked about the concept of the first multi-purpose retractable domed stadium where the Argos will play. This was all done in a cartoon sketch. It looked pretty neat and we were all pretty excited for the new stadium we would move into where weather would no longer be a factor. I know that many of the players couldn't wait to play indoors. We would still practice on the CNE grounds and have our locker room still at the Exhibition Stadium until the city determined what would happen to the "mistake by the lake." As the stadium was being built we all had great expectations. It would be ready a little later than first assumed but the wait would be worth it. As it neared completion, people began to anticipate the 1989 opening. As if to foreshadow why this stadium was needed our last game at the EX in 1988 was a rainy East Final where we couldn't hold onto the ball, catch the ball or keep from slipping on the watery field.

I'm not 100 percent sure what was so exciting. I think it was the idea of Big City Football in a Big stadium where we wouldn't be affected by weather. After a decline in attendance in the Skydome now known as The Rogers Centre, I can start to say that the excitement was the idea of going to a new stadium because with us now moving to BMO field in 2016, I'm excited. We are going back to that potential for rainy games but despite that I think the feeling of a new beginning has us all equally excited as we were in 1989. I think my next blog will talk about the various reflections of our days at our home from 1989-2015.

27 Years ago this Saturday.....

Yep 27 years ago this Saturday we faced the Hamilton Tiger Cats at IvorWynne in the first of a two game total point formatted Eastern Final. It would be my very first Toronto Argonauts Play-Off game and the atmosphere would be one I'll never forget.

Going into Ivor Wynne for a regular season game like the Labour Day Classic was exciting but imagine when a two game, home at home series would decide who will go on to play in the Grey Cup at BC Place. I knew it would be hard to beat the Ticats in Ivor Wynne but for some reason I had a great feeling. Our game earlier in October we lost in Ivor Wynne by 10 points but beat them both times at home. All the games were close so who would imagine what could happen. Under the leadership of #6 Quarterback JC Watts we managed to beat the TigerCats 31-17. A few interesting notes, it was the first playoff game for Darrell K Smith and Chris Schultz. Going back to Toronto all we really had to do is win or lose by less than two touchdowns. Very Possible.

Being a member of the equipment team thats where I realized the rivalry reached beyond the players and fans. Upon arriving at IvorWynne I was startled to see that we were given a few accessories that were supposed to be provided by visiting teams, much to be desired. I'll leave the details for my book. That angered all of us on the equipment team. I also recall that at Ivor Wynne the visiting team had to walk outside their locker room with Tiger Cat fans just above. Walking off the field after beating the TigerCats, as a 16 year old ball boy, I pushed a trunk towards the locker room pretty happy to know I will have a chance to be in my  very first Grey Cup. However, my daydreaming was stopped abruptly when an empty mickey shattered just feet from me and the trunk. As it happened, I recall the person that would be fitting to come to my rescue, #2 Carl Brazely. He looked up and made sure that the fans knew they did wrong and that their actions while passionate for the team were stupid.

That's when I really knew the rivalry that stood before me.

November 23rd we made sure the TigerCats recieved exactly what they gave us. As I wheeled the shopping cart with their gameday accessories, I was given a few messages to relay back to the Equipment crew of the Argonauts. All I wanted was the game to begin and for us to win and I would see if I might be included in the trip plans to Vancouver. Before you could blink we were up by 26 points after the first quarter. Things were looking very promising. then it happened. Just as the legendary "Argo Bounce" was a story I heard about, I saw it first hand. By the end of the fourth quarter and mishaps I'd like to forget, we lost the two game total point series 59-56! and watching Mike Kerrigan and Al Bruno on the TigerCats sideline celebrate made me feel a little on the sick side.

I continued my chores as though it were another game but this time amidst the picking up of towels, laundry and jerseys I heard sobs. Players sat in front of their lockers sobbing about the fact that we were just 45 minutes away from being in the Grey Cup.

Those memories were very hard to take. If anything that two game total point series only taught me how much I detested the TigerCats in the Eastern Final. I had no idea that I wouldn't feel the rivalry 27 years later, in a domed stadium, with the very close potential of over 40,000 fans in the 101st Grey Cup Playoffs.

Right now from that 86 team, only myself and Danny are still employed with the Argos. Only he and I will remember the antics around the game. Who knows it could be another 27 years til these two teams meet in the East Final again.

29th Home Opener-A Refllection

The start of a new season

This Friday will mark my 29th home opener. If you were to ask me back in 1985 when I was working the home opener at Exhibition Stadium, where I would be almost 30 years later, I doubt I would have said still working with the Toronto Argonauts. The Montreal franchise was called the Concordes, the Ottawa franchise was still in the league with a QB, JC Watts who would eventually be the first African American in Oklahoma to win statewide office.  I was assisting the sidelines of the Saskatchewan Roughriders as they played our Double Blue and were not the team with the amazing following they have today. I couldn’t believe that I was part of a team that only a few years ago, I was watching win their first Grey Cup in 31 years. This would be my first taste of being part of an exciting game known as the Home Opener.

My 1987 home opener was somewhat of a unique experience because with very little warning, the team I was supposed to assist on the sidelines that day, decided to hang up their cleats for 10 years. The Montreal Concordes folded just before the home opener that year and were quickly replaced with Winnipeg becoming an Eastern team.

In 1989 the home opener had a new exciting twist to it. In response to the rainy Grey Cup loss at home in 1982, Paul Goddfrey proclaimed that the City of Toronto needed an indoor stadium, a domed stadium. Many forgot to this day that the SkyDome was built based on this proclamation and others just like it. This home opener was under a roof and in front of 33,000 the Argos would lose to the Tiger Cats.

Then there was 1991. 41,000 people filled the SkyDome which became known eventually as the Rogers Centre. It was the birth of the Rocket's career and more importantly the dawn of Hollywood North. John Candy was the owner at the time and making my way to the stadium I could feel the buzz. AAAARRRRGGGOOOS beckoned in the streets carrying over from the pre-game party the night before, hosted at the Horseshoe Tavern with a performance by the Blues Brothers. The team had just come off of a win in Ottawa, despite the question as to when the CFL would see the Rocket perform. He missed the pre-season and first game due to injury, but on July 18th, in front of the 41,000 loud fans, Raghib "the Rocket" Ismail would make his debut in the city of Toronto. The Blues Brothers played at half time and the stage was set for a storybook season. That would be the biggest crowd in my home opener history. That season I would receive my first of five Grey Cup rings.

Who would have ever thought that in 1994 we would be playing a home opener against a team from Baltimore in the Canadian Football League. In only my 2nd year as a full time assistant equipment manager I would be travelling across Canada and South of the border. The team we met in our home opener would be the first non-Canadian city to win the Grey Cup a year later.

On June 8, 1999 the inspiration for my love of the Argos would leave my life.  My dad would pass away before the Argo season, leaving me without the confidante I could talk to about the woes and celebrations of the good ship Argonauts. The true family spirit of the Argonauts would shine through my dark clouds in the way of a memoriam on the video board for my Dad that home opener. I remember as it went up, despite the game atmosphere, having the many people involved with the Argos making a point to pat me on the back consoling me and letting me know I don't have to be alone on the journey.

In our 115th season in existence, and my 20th Home opener, I would run out of the tunnel with the Toronto Argonauts as the "Argo Bounce". I would be part of the team and excitement leading all the way to our 15th Grey Cup Championship.

Now just a day away we will be starting our 140th season as a franchise, commemorating an incredible win of the 100th Grey Cup. This game will be played against the Hamilton Tiger Cats and hopefully an amazing  crowd will be present to celebrate our momentum from last season, carrying us into another season that I'm sure will be filled with excitement and the pride of being the defending Grey Cup Champions.

In home openers my record is 11 wins and 17 losses. So I have some catching up to do, but home openers can be tempo setters or just eye openers to get a loss out of the way. However in seasons where we won the home opener we are 4 and 1 for winning the Grey Cup that year.

Either way it is a time for fans to get excited for Canadian Football back in town. Brush off those horns, get some fresh new bright blue face paint and forget about last season. It’s a new season. Fans feel the excitement walking up to the gates to see that year's edition of their Toronto Argonauts. The true buzz happens when the home team runs out of the locker room as they are introduced with as much excitement as the fans that cheer for them because this game isn’t built on hype. It's a collection of athletes that play the game for the love of the game who they can relate to anytime. For the fans, it’s a time to reflect on their memories of their past home openers and for some the beginning of many home openers for years to come.

For me it’s a time to be a part of another home opener to set up my 29th season of memories with the Double Blue add another chapter to my book and my life.

The End of an Era

Today marks the last day for a Labour Day game to be played at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton Ontario. I spent 25 Labour Days at Ivor Wynne stadium. While many of my friends and relatives spent their Labour day Monday watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon or the Air show at the CNE, I worked the Labour Day game amongst all the Hamilton fans that welcomed the "double Blue" with the well known "Argos Suck" chant. I thought I would share my first memorable experience at Ivor Wynne, Labour Day Classic as a tribute to the end of a great era in sports history.            

  My first memorable trip to Ivor Wynne for the Labour Day Classic was in 1987. The tension was thick because just 10 months before this game, the Tiger Cats swooped into Exhibition Stadium and came back from a 32 point deficit in a two game total point playoff series to beat us 33-32. The Tiger Cats went on to win the Cup that year so they had complete confidence or I should say arrogance about them.

We weren't in the best position in the standings and we were defined as a rebuilding team. We lost games in such a manner that made it feel that way. We were 4-4 and 1 going into the classic while the Tiger Cats were 6-3. We needed a win and we hadn't won a Labour Day game in Hamilton since 1968.

As I pushed the equipment trunk across the field for the prep of the game all I could hear was "Argos Suck". I thought back to what it was like at the stadium a few hours before that. It was like any other road trip. The fans made it different.
Just 4 hours before that the stadium was a quiet place with the weather a nice warm and humid afternoon. The game was a night game so we had less heat to worry about, however you can still see the ash from the Dofasco plant slightly layered on the field. You knew you were in Hamilton and it was the calm before the storm. As players rolled into the room you could smell the coffee brewing that the offensive lineman would drink as religiously as they drank the gatorade during the game. I did my usual prep for a game and as the clock got closer to the game the stands began to fill and the players made less polite conversation. There were less hand shakes, less pats on the back and less "how are you feeling" "things good at home?" "Have a good game." Now there was glaring, trash talk and alot of shouting at teammates to "Get Hype".

Every play in the game followed alot of yelling and heckling. The bench area was so close to the stands you could hear a person sip their beer in between "Schultzie you suck!".  As the game went on, it was starting to appear that the Ticats would add yet another loss to our rebuilding season but the drama would shock all the 24,770 that were there to see a back and forth battle. The Ticats were leading 19-18 with less than a minute. Gilbert Renfroe would make a number of completions to take the ball to the 1 with 1 second remaining.

A quick run down the gap by Running back Tony Johns put the winning touch down on the board and we were victorious. I ran around the bench in such a frenzy and remember getting a coke thrown on me by a fan in the front row. I didn't care and when CBC had shown high lights of the win, there I was running towards the camera. It would be another 5 Labour day games before we won one.

In my 25 Labour Day games I was part of the winner for only 8. So you can see how that game wasn't one I enjoyed being a part of, however I know that I will miss the hype and the passion that the fans brought to every game we played at Ivor Wynne, especially the game that was the last day of the summer holidays and the Labour day Classic.

I'll have to save some of the hairier stories for my book.

The 1971 Argonaut's Family

It was July 7th and I walked into the RC for my assignment that day, help the 71 team feel at home. Something I actually looked forward to. You see I had only heard stories over 13 years ago when my Dad was alive. He used to tell me about the days he used to watch his Argos. He used to tell me how they worked hard to bring Toronto a Grey Cup after such a long time of not being in the cup.

So as soon as I began this job with the Argonauts 28 years ago, I was already excited to be a part of the legacy. It was just last year that I was given the role of being the alumni liaison between the team and its alumni. From that point I had realized how important alumni were to this organization. they were there during the good years and the bad years and they were always talking about the Double Blue with pride whenever asked. Even when at times some may have felt slighted by the team or didn't agree with what was happening around the team, they still came around.

Saturday was truly enjoyable. I enjoyed seeing the 200 people lined up for autographs and not just those that may have seen the 71 team play but even youth that were teens or even younger. What a sight to see even a younger generation appreciate these athletes who played when a million dollar salary was unheard of in the entire world.

When those autographs were over it was nice to see the guys get together for something they all had in common, the love of football and more specifically, the Argos. As the score changed and the Argos took the lead you, can sense a hop in their step as they made their way to the half-time celebration.

They all made sure that no one was left behind as they waited for each other by the elevator to make their way down. When they saw their Coach, Leo Cahill, they all made sure he was okay and had a place to sit. Once they made it out to the centre field they waved in pride as their names were announced. Walking back to the elevators they walked by the current Argos waving, shaking hands with players that weren't even born when these guys wore uniforms similar to the ones they wear today. Despite the lack of connection, it still seemed as though no matter the age difference there was still that mutual respect.

71 Argonaut Family

As the game neared the end and the score was tied, the alumni rose to their feet to watch the final seconds. Joining the 71 team in the box was 83' Grey Cup champion Steve Ackroyd and I truly enjoyed the delight in Steve's voice when he told me how he was so honoured to be able to be with the guys that inspired him to play. What made me most content was seeing the camaraderie that these players shared. It was the same camaraderie I saw at the 91 reunion last year and the same camaraderie that other Argo teams have shared and still share. It made me think of family, which brought me back to my memory of my dad, who passed away in 1999. He told me what a special team the Argos had and when I began working for the team I started to see it. Now on July 7th I understood what made them so special, it was the sense of family they all shared. I later found out that I had the privilege of being with the 71 team and ironically when I was one the poster of Joe Theismann and the '71 Argos hung over my crib. I was part of the family long before I ever knew. Now that I am a part of it, I am thankful for it.

Home Opener....Countdown

Home Opener just 4 days away. We kick off our home season against the Calgary Stampeders. Today I was talking with a few colleagues about the significance of a home opener and it took me back to one of my most memorable. 1991 against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. I was an Equipment assistant and I knew that the year ahead would be quite exciting.

There was a tremendous buzz around the "SkyDome" at the time and after a training camp where the Argos made headlines everywhere including south of the border, it could only get better. While the players got a good night sleep, I went to the private party at the Horseshoe Tavern where the "Blues Brothers" gave VIPs a sneak preview to what was coming up the next day.

I went to the party with the other Equipment assistant, Joey, and we walked around the bar looking at all the who's who of the team and their associates. My turned every which way trying to catch a glimpse and perhaps be able to bump into our new owners, specifically, John Candy. I thought to myself how great it would be to be able to chat about the "Great Outdoors" or "Uncle Buck". Most of all I wanted to thank him for bringing back the electricity to the Argos.

The night was young but I had ruled out the fact that I would get to meet him. I began to chat with a nice lady who asked me what i did for the team. When I explained I was one of the locker room helpers, she seemed interested. I told her how excited I was that we had Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and John Candy as new owners and how it would be amazing to be able to meet them. She then said come with me and head towards none other than John Candy. All I could think was that this lady had a lot of guts to just take us over. When we arrived to see John standing with a drink in his hand chatting with someone in a deep conversation, I was startled to hear this lady interrupt John in his conversation. When she claimed how we worked  with the team and said how we were excited to meet him he turned to face us then put his arm around this lady and asked us who we were. When he found out my nickname was affectionately "Sui" he giggled and said that it was a pleasure to meet us and told us not to hesitate to chat whenever we wanted.

That lady was Rose Candy, John's wife and thanks to Rose I got a chance to meet our new owner and realized that I would have plenty of chances to chat about Uncle Buck or the Great Outdoors because we were now part of the same team.

So the next day amongst all the hype and the performance of the Blues Brothers, I thought to myself how now in front of that 35,000 plus crowd, our owner was getting people excited to be an Argo again.

That was one of my favourite home openers in my 28 years. Hope that Saturday will bring back some of that excitement.